The increasing usage of cellular telephones and other wireless electronic devices generally has given rise to a demand for the use such devices by passengers while traveling in aircraft. In most commercial aircraft, however, the passengers are prohibited from using these wireless devices, since their use interferes with services outside the aircraft. When activated on board aircraft, cellular telephones will actively try, and sometimes succeed, in communicating via ground based cellular infrastructure. This is undesirable, and not allowed by government regulations.
As shown in FIG. 1, an aircraft 10 has an aluminum exterior 12, a passenger compartment 14 and a plurality of windows 16. It is believed that the primary means of transmission of RF energy between the passenger compartment 14 and the exterior of the aircraft 10 is via the windows 16. This includes the transmission of electromagnetic transmission frequencies currently in use for cellular phones which commonly operate in the 800 Mhz to 5 Ghz frequency range.
There is a need, therefore, for improved aircraft windows that are transparent to electromagnetic energy in the visible spectrum, yet opaque to RF energy.